Canada's Largest Weed Company Wants to Be First Pot Stock on NYSE

Canopy Growth Corp. hopes to go public in the U.S. and pile on American investors before cannabis legalization goes into effect in Canada later this year.

The Great White North's largest legal weed company is coming to Wall Street.

According to Bloomberg, Canopy Growth Corp. has applied to become the first ever canna-business listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a landmark for North America's burgeoning marijuana industry.

Boasting a market value of $4.7 billion, Canopy Growth has solidified itself as a major player in Canada's existing medical and impending recreational cannabis markets. The company has already listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the tongue-in-cheek ticker symbol "WEED."

By expanding the company's public offering into the U.S., Canopy CEO Bruce Linton hopes to attract stateside investors and solidify the brand's mainstream and legitimate status around the globe.

"One of the primary drivers of this listing is, as we are expanding globally, having U.S. institutional investors helps," Linton said. "I think the investment community has to drop the pot jokes and talk about the investment grade opportunity."

On Canopy's journey to the American stock market, Linton had originally planned to list the Canadian cultivation giant on the NASDAQ, but due to timing and prestige, the company decided to wait long enough to entice traders on the NYSE.

"Ultimately one of them is on Wall Street and has a bit more history and cache, and the neighbors on it are pretty substantive companies," Linton told Bloomberg.

Since the U.S. government still considers cannabis a Schedule I narcotic with no medical value, no American-based marijuana businesses have been allowed to go public on either the NASDAQ or NYSE. In 2016, Colorado-based media company MassRoots applied to go public, but was quickly rejected by NASDAQ officials.

But with Canada set to end its nationwide cannabis prohibition once and for all before the year is over, those same exclusionary rules do not apply for businesses above America's northern border.

If all goes according to plan, Linton says that Canopy Growth Corp. will make Wall Street history and go public on the NYSE by the end of May.